1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of fixing a toner image onto a recording medium such as paper when forming an image by using electrophotography, a fixing apparatus using the same, and an image forming apparatus using the same.
2. Related Art
Use of a fixing apparatus having a fixing belt stretched between a heat roller and a release roller has been proposed in an image-forming apparatus for forming a glossy image, such as a copying machine. In the fixing apparatus, paper onto which a toner image has been transferred is heated and pressed in a state where the surface on which the toner image is formed is contacted with the fixing belt, and the paper is conveyed on the fixing belt and simultaneously cooled, and separated from the fixing belt at the position of a release roller, whereby a glossy image is formed on the paper.
Heat-resistant fluorine resin, fluorine rubber, fluorine-based elastomer or silicone rubber is used as a surface material forming the outer periphery of the fixing belt utilized in the fixing apparatus.
A substrate of the fixing belt may be made of a metal such as stainless steel, nickel steel or the like, however, a fixing belt thus constituted has the problem that an operator can be hurt by the edge of the fixing belt upon generation of jams or during production, thus making handling inconvenient. In addition, the heat capacity of the fixing belt as a whole is high, so there is a problem of increasing the electric power consumed.
To solve these problems, a heat-resistant resin belt having a substrate of heat-resistant resin and a surface layer of a heat-resistant elastic body arranged on the outer periphery of the substrate has been proposed.